Politics needs more moderates to turn the congressional ship

U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent has joined the bipartisan group, No Labels, which… (HARRY FISHER, THE MORNING…)

January 22, 2013|Bill White

Politics are like the Titanic.

No, I don't mean they always result in disasters, although you could make a case for that these days. Rather, I'm referring to that scene in the Leo-Kate version of the story where the lookouts spot the iceberg, yell for a direction change — and then watch in horror as the ship takes too long to turn.

I think most of us have figured out that our Congress, for example, is steaming at high speed in the wrong direction and that there are all kinds of icebergs looming. But it will not turn on a dime, not matter how much we want it to. These things take more than one election to correct themselves.

It would be hard to argue that we don't need to change course. The gravitational pull to the far right and the far left — and the risk of primary election reprisals for the slightest hint of moderation — have become so great that we have a government that can barely govern. I've become an advocate for the gray area, where people of different views can move from the black and white extremes and come together to compromise and get things done. That's not going to happen unless we elect more moderates, or at least pragmatists, on either side of the aisle.

This is why I began a column after the election last November explaining why I always end up voting for Lehigh Valley Congressman Charlie Dent, even when I'm kind of unhappy with him. I never published it, but I was reminded last week of what I wrote and why.

The Morning Call's Colby Itkowitz reported that Dent has joined a group dedicated to breaking partisan gridlock on Capitol Hill. The story noted that he's among 24 bipartisan federal lawmakers teaming up with the nonprofit group No Labels as "problem solvers" by meeting regularly throughout the year to build trust across the political aisle. Some of them, including 15th District U.S. Rep. Dent, appeared at a No Labels gathering in New York City.

No Labels, an organization of well-connected business and political leaders, first came together in 2010 to promote centrist politics. Central to its website is the rallying cry MAKE AMERICA WORK, which is broken to: 1. Tell us the full truth 2. Govern for the future 3. Put the country first 4. Be responsible 5. Work together. The group hopes to attract more lawmakers, expanding beyond moderates to include legislators who are further left or right.

Dent said at the event that people need to stop politicking and start governing. "When your house is on fire, you have to stop arguing about the escape routes," he said. "At some point you have to choose one and move forward."

I know and like Dent, but I've known and liked a couple of his opponents, too, including the last one. What's more, I've been somewhat disenchanted with him over the last couple of years for joining the rest of his party in sliding further to the right and for not raising a public ruckus when state Republicans gerrymandered his and other Pennsylvania congressional districts, splitting up the Lehigh Valley in the process.

All these things weighed on me in the election booth. Still, I concluded again that Congress needs more — not fewer — Charlie Dents. Moderates in each party are our only hope of eventually turning the ship, and they've become an endangered species in Washington.

"If you're going to see movement in the ranks of Congress," observed Christopher Borick, political science professor at Muhlenberg College, "it doesn't surprise me that Charlie Dent is there. Historically, if you've looked at him, on the whole he's tended to be closer to the center of politics than to the extreme … . I think he's a fairly pragmatic political figure, an ideological conservative but by no means ideologically rigid. How many pro-choice Republicans are left? He's one of them."

Borick acknowledged that in this highly partisan environment, any move toward what might be perceived as party disloyalty holds risks. But he believes compromise is what the American people want — and that in the long run, it'll be better not just for the country, but for the parties.

"The public is absolutely clamoring for it," he said. "If you look at polls, there's an absolute disgust with extremism. Any bipartisan efforts like this, where you find Republicans and Democrats working constructively, can only be received positively."

The results of last year's election gave me some hope that sensible Republicans would examine the demographic and ideological trends and decide the tea party should not be setting their course. Likewise, I hoped that the Democrats would respond by recognizing that they need to give ground in entitlement reform and other areas to help break the gridlock.

Maybe those things will happen, but they're not going to happen overnight, as Congress' ugly fiscal cliff and debt ceiling shenanigans have demonstrated. Optimism is hard to come by.

So I welcomed the news that at least a handful of lawmakers understand the benefits of exploring areas where they can find common ground. We as voters need to reward that kind of thinking, not just in Washington, but in Harrisburg and in local politics.